1. Principles and practices

This week I worked on defining my final project idea and started to getting used to the documentation process.

Fab Charter

The Fab Charter is the core set of principles that come with a FabLab, including responsibilites of the user. I have read and I approve the following Charter:

http://fab.cba.mit.edu/about/charter/

Project draft

Given the importance of 3D scanning for FabLab worldwide, I dedcided to investigate this topic. I know from my PhD research that photogrammetric methods have come a long way, and should now be able to tackle complex objects without the need of a structured light projector.

My current idea for a project is a cheap photogrammetric scanner based on a Raspberry pi camera: read more. Photogrammetry is usually a time consuming process, therefore I would like to automate the entire process. This includes controlling the scanner through USB with an ad-hoc host software, and rotating the object with a turntable. Here is a small sktech of the current idea:

The turntable can simulate a large amount of virtual cameras being placed all around the object. However, the changes in lighting could be a great threat during the feature detection step. As a quick fix, I suggest to attach all lighting equipment to the turntable. If there is too much external light disturbing the process, it might be necessary to enclose the scanner with a dark fabric (to be tested).

You can follow the progress of my project on the dedicated page.

Student agreement

I have read, approved and uploaded the Student agreement for the course.